Press Releases:

New national coalition will kick off with a media breakfast next Wednesday

03/20/2014

Washington– Americans for Marriage Equality, a new bipartisan coalition formed with the help of the Human Rights Campaign, officially launched today with new resources that will provide up-to-the-minute information and analysis on national and state marriage equality cases, legislation, and other developments. A new daily Playbook-style email tipsheet called “A.M. Equality” will deliver a daily news roundup and analysis designed to help media, legal experts, and communicators alike stay abreast of marriage equality developments around the country. A.M. Equality will go arm in arm with a new website, AmericansForMarriageEquality.org, which will serve as a one-stop resource for the latest news, polling, and analysis, and will soon regularly feature digital videos and interviews with legal experts, newsmakers, and celebrities. A Twitter account, @AM_Equality, will tweet out breaking news and commentary.

Americans for Marriage Equality will host a kick-off media breakfast next Wednesday, March 26th, on the one-year anniversary of oral arguments in the Perry, the U.S. Supreme Court case which ended California’s “Prop 8” ban on marriage for gay couples. Oral arguments in Windsor, the successful legal challenge to DOMA, took place the following day on March 27, 2013.

One year later, Americans for Marriage Equality will discuss the next phase in the national push for marriage equality. The event will feature a panel discussion with attorneys for plaintiffs in a number of high-profile state cases challenging state marriage bans around the country, including Shannon Minter of NCLR on Utah’s Kitchen v. Herbert case; Susan Sommer of Lambda Legal in Nevada’s Sevcik v. Sandoval case; Dawn Elliott representing plaintiffs in Kentucky’s Bourke v. Beshear case; and Dan Canon of Indiana’s Love v. Pence case. Bipartisan pollsters Alex Lundry of TargetPoint, formerly Director of Data Science for Gov. Mitt Romney, and Anna Greenberg of GQRR will also present the results of a new joint public opinion survey, which explored marriage equality from a number of angles, including Republican support and considerations for future presidential candidates, as well as attitudes among millenials.

A.M. Equality released one timely finding from the bipartisan survey that sheds light on Americans’ growing acceptance of gays and embrace of LGBT equality overall. With the NFL draft approaching in May, 79 percent of Americans – including 91 percent of millenials surveyed – said they would draft openly gay SEC all-star Michael Sam over a straight candidate who was slightly less good.

Full poll results will be presented at next week’s media breakfast, which will take place at 8:30am ET on March 26th, in the Human Rights Campaign’s Equality Center. Doors will open at 8:00am for coffee and bagels, and media and advocates interested in attending are encouraged to RSVP to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to ensure seats.

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Fax: (202) 347-5323

To contact HRC please visit our contact us page. If you are a member of the media, you can reach our press office at: (202) 572-8968 or email press@hrc.org.

5 Things to Know about LGBTQ Issues

1. There are roughly 10 million LGBTQ adults in the U.S., or roughly 4.1 percent of the population.

2. Sixteen percent of same-sex couples are raising children according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2011 Current Population Survey.

3. There is no federal law that consistently protects LGBTQ individuals from employment discrimination; there are no state laws in 28 states that explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, and in 30 states that do so based on gender identity.

4. More than 50 anti-LGBTQ bills have been filed in 19 state legislatures in the 2017 state legislative session.

5. The FBI reported 1,167 hate crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity in 2015. This is likely a dramatic undercount since thousands of agencies didn't submit any data and reporting is not mandatory.